Ellegant Elle

I've been trying to figure out why my braid outs do not give me the same texture that they gave me when I discovered how to do them in the Summer of 2010.

A picture from my birthday party...I don't know how I managed to score this definition on the perfect day!

A picture I took before going out for a bowling party. This braid out is partially damp but lasted the night.

So for the past 5 months I have been working to recreate the combination of definition, hold, and shine that I obtained from these braid outs that I did over the summer. No luck. I mean, my braid outs aren't a complete epic fail, they have a lot of body...but I miss the definition and shine that I used to have. I've been testing different products and combinations to see if I'm missing something...then one day it hit me...

I was not doing two things in my current braid outs that I did in the past:

1) I was not sealing my ends. This would result in very huge dried out frizz ball looking ends (in my opinion).

2) I was doing individual braids, rather than "cornrows". For some reason, cornrows make my braid outs come out neater and more uniform, so to speak.

So through sealing my ends and using cornrows, rather than individual braids, I got these results instead:

This is not fluffed out, even fluffed out I'm sure this would have had a lot more definition and hold than my braid outs as of late. Results like these keep my hands away from the direction of the flat iron. 

Hehe :)